Do Taylor Swift’s ancestors actually come from a small parish in rural Sweden?

2024-05-15 09:49:10

Lodged within the mountains between Östersund and Norway, Offerdal within the area of Sweden, April 2024
– 2024-04-06 01:20:02″>Jämtland is dwelling to some 2,000 individuals. It might even be the ancestral dwelling of Taylor Swift.

Or perhaps not. It isn’t solely clear. Bear with us.

“It has been written about in a number of newspapers since as way back as 2014. As a result of particularly Offerdal and a village known as Söderåsen are talked about in these articles, we have been interested in this for some time,” Sara Swedenmark, chair of the Offerdal Group Affiliation, informed The Native.

When Swift determined to launch her Eras Tour in Sweden (she’s set to carry out in Stockholm on Could Seventeenth-Nineteenth), the group determined to look into her attainable reference to Offerdal, which is talked about on a number of American family tree websites, however all the time regardless of a supply.

Throughout their analysis, they discovered two individuals from the realm who might presumably be associated to Swift. One among them is Olof Thorsson, who’s the principle particular person rumoured to be one in every of her ancestors.

“We will see that there are individuals who join them, however in a single place the road is damaged as a result of there is a man who married a number of occasions. So we have not discovered a direct line of descent, however we’re not saying it would not exist. As a result of we’re speaking about round 1,200 individuals in 400 years, there might be different potentialities,” stated Swedenmark.

A church within the parish of Offerdal. Photograph: Offerdal/Wikimedia Commons

Thorsson travelled along with his household in 1641 to New Sweden – a Swedish colony in what at present are Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland – on board the ship Kalmar Nyckel. He’s stated to have dedicated against the law in Sweden and was despatched overseas for penal labour.

“We have not discovered which crime he allegedly dedicated, though there are conviction data from this time, which makes us doubt whether or not he really lived right here,” stated Swedenmark.

“One other one who was banished from the nation round this time in Offerdal obtained it as punishment for having put witchcraft on the neighbour’s cattle.”

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An oil portray by Jacob Hägg, depicting the ship Kalmar Nyckel. Photograph: The Maritime Museum/Wikimedia Commons

However additionally they discovered one other attainable reference to Swift: a person generally known as Jöns The Black Smith Andersson, his spouse Maria and their daughter Brita, who travelled to New Sweden in 1654.

“There appear to be sure relations right here through half siblings within the early 18th century,” stated Swedenmark, urging readers to succeed in out if they’ve extra data. “The Church of Sweden began protecting inhabitants data within the later half of the Seventeenth century, so it is not fully easy to trace down roots from this time.”

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So in different phrases, nothing concrete that confirms that Swift does certainly descend from Offerdal, and the parish is just not the one place on the earth that is purportedly related to the artist. Family tree firm Ancestry claims she’s associated to the American poet Emily Dickinson, and in line with My Heritage she’s additionally associated to France’s King Louis XIV and US actor Johnny Depp.

Offerdal, against this, is somewhat much less grand. However what would possibly life have been like on the time?

“Offerdal within the Seventeenth century was an uneasy place, as a result of Jämtland was being torn between the Swedish king and the Danish-Norwegian king,” defined Swedenmark. “There have been a variety of wars in shut succession and farms had been seized if the proprietor swore their allegiance to the ‘incorrect’ king. There have been round 30 villages and 600 individuals within the parish.”